Baseball's Big Day of Deep Weirdness

There are days when baseball reminds people why it has captivated them for so many years. And there are days when baseball embarrasses itself. This wasn't either one of those kinds of days. This was just weird, awkward, at once uncomfortable and entertaining in a rubbernecking sort of way.

For the first time, Hall of Fame voters had to consider the candidacies of some of the biggest names from an era marked by performance-enhancing drug use—but no testing. It was a star-studded ballot, loaded with players who allegedly, maybe did, maybe didn't, we think might have taken steroids.

The result was comical. Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson went on live national television Wednesday afternoon and, like a presenter at the Oscars, held up a sealed envelope. Finally, he pulled out a piece of paper and revealed that the honor goes to…no one!

San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds ASSOCIATED PRESS

Not Barry Bonds. Not Roger Clemens. Not even candidates with strong resumes and less PED suspicion surrounding them, like Mike Piazza and Curt Schilling. Adding to the spectacle of it all, one ballot included pitcher Aaron Sele, whose 4.61 earned-run average during a 15-year career paints the picture of mediocrity.

"It is what it is," commissioner
Bud Selig
said, perfectly summing up an ambivalent day for the sport.

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Was justice done here? Plenty of people, both inside and outside the game, believe it was. Marlon Anderson, a marginal major-league player from 1998 to 2009, praised voters for their "bold statement" and for standing up for the players who were clean. Many voting members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America righteously declared they would never vote for a known steroids user.

And yet, there was just as much shouting from the other side about what an injustice this was. How could voters keep out two all-time greats in the absence of definitive, incontrovertible proof that they cheated? And should PED use really disqualify a player from induction, given the long list of cheaters and scoundrels already in the Hall?

ENLARGE

"Those empowered to help the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum document the history of the game failed to recognize the contributions of several Hall of Fame-worthy players," players' union chief Michael Weiner said. "To penalize players exonerated in legal proceedings—and others never even implicated—is simply unfair."

At the root of the debate is the question of what, exactly, Hall of Fame voters are empowered to do. By extension, what is the Hall supposed to be? And what makes a Hall of Famer?

By its literal definition, the Hall would simply be a room filled with famous people, like a wing of the Museum of American History dedicated to the Kardashians. The most sensible purpose would be to make it a pure history museum, not about fame or morality but about historical significance.

To act as if an entire era didn't happen, or to mark its stars with some kind of asterisk while the bronzes of known racists, drunks and the like remain untouched, threatens the credibility of the institution. But the Hall instructs voters to consider the "character" and "integrity" of candidates, traits that are both irrelevant and impossible to fairly judge. And neither MLB nor the Hall has taken a hard stance on how to evaluate steroid-era players.

That leaves a group of more than 500 journalists—some of whom no longer cover the sport regularly—to decide what to do with known or suspected PED users. And for all the hand-wringing, nothing was decided Wednesday.

The issue was just tabled for future years, when players like Bonds and Clemens will be back on the ballot, reigniting the debate anew. More players from their era will join them on the ballot in the years ahead. And someday, voters will need to decide whether to induct iconic players who either admitted using banned drugs or tested positive, most notably Alex Rodriguez.

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